The Prince and The Pauper
by rogan4evur
Summary: "The prince and the pauper syndrome. You have Jesse. He's the perfect boyfriend that any girl would kill for. And then there's Finn – the pauper. He's not as affluent as the prince, he's not as successful, he's not famous, but he has the pity factor."


"So you've been cheating on me?" Jesse scoffed. His voice held anger and a shred of guarded heartache.

"No! No, I just-" Tears fell down Rachel's cheeks rapidly and her voice cracked before she could finish her sentence. Jesse just stared at her with discontent covering his automatic urge to comfort her. Today, though, that urge wasn't at its usual strength. _She brought this upon herself,_ he kept repeating over and over in his head.

"What is it then, Rachel?" He spat her name out and cursed the pain that showed through his voice. "And don't try to tell me that he has nothing to do with this. I'm sick of all the lies."

"He just – I just-" She tried, but again she couldn't finish. All she could do is stand there and take whatever he wanted to throw at her because she knew she deserved it.

Jesse had been nothing short of the absolute perfect boyfriend ever since they had rekindled their romance in New York. He made sure she had whatever she wanted. He refused to let her live in her shifty Brooklyn apartment, instead insisting that she moved in with him on the Upper East Side. He had gone to countless performances of hers, and he had waited patiently for her at the end of every stage door. He didn't mind that she got home late a lot of nights, and he didn't complain when she had to leave early in the mornings for rehearsals. He practically showered her with gifts, and she was never deprived of an "I love you."

And, up until a month ago, she had been the same. She reciprocated with him one-hundred percent. But then something happened – or rather, _someone_ happened.

Up until that point, Jesse and Rachel had been the perfect couple. They spent every available minute together without it ever becoming tiring. They always had something new to discuss, or another thing to discover about one another. Their relationship couldn't have been any better, but then Rachel got a phone call... from Finn Hudson. He had called to tell Rachel that he was moving to New Jersey to open a car maintenance shop and to inform her that he would be attending her performance the following weekend.

After Rachel told him, Jesse wasn't afraid to let her know how uncomfortable he was with the situation. He also brought up the suspicions of why Finn would want to move all the way to New Jersey to just open a car shop. To him, it was obvious that Finn just wanted to be near Rachel. To Rachel, Finn was just trying to escape Lima and get his life back together. So, after Rachel's insistent pleading, Jesse caved and decided to put all suspicions he had of Finn's motives to rest until Finn acted in a way that proved otherwise.

Once he moved to New Jersey, it didn't take long for him to spend most of his time in New York. Occasionally, he had the excuse of visiting Puck and Quinn, but sometimes he would just show up at their apartment looking for Rachel.

So, naturally, Jesse breeched the topic of him trying to steal her away with Rachel again. This, as he had expected, had led to a pretty intense fight with trust issues on both sides revealed.

That had been a week ago, and it was safe to say some of the tension was still there. And with two people who were naturally drawn to drama, the fights kept coming. Rachel was spending more and more time not at home, and Jesse wasn't stupid. He knew who he was spending her time with.

But she always came home, so he figured nothing was irreparable. He thought that the tension would fade with a few apologies and a trip to Tiffany's. Not this time, though. Last night had been the straw that broke the camel's back. She hadn't come home.

He waited up for hours. He called her phone countless times. She never answered. He called Quinn, and she didn't know anything. He called a few of the people that were in her show with her and all said that she had left without stage-dooring and gotten into a cab.

He ended up falling asleep on the couch around 3:00 a.m. still having no hints as to where his girlfriend of over a year had disappeared to. Needless to say, when she walked through the front door the next morning he wasn't happy. At all. Which led them to where they were now.

"Just tell me where you were!" Jesse yelled, desperation leaked into his shout.

"With Finn," Rachel finally muttered. More tears fell down her cheeks and her sobs drowned out her reply.

"What was that?"

"With Finn," Rachel repeated louder and began crying again.

Jesse sighed as if he had already know. Which he had. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration and opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by the ringing of a cell phone.

Rachel immediately reached for her phone from where she had sat it on the coffee table, but Jesse got to it first. He took one look at the name that was calling and dropped her phone to the ground.

"Get out."

"Jesse-"

"Just get out!" Jesse finally exclaimed and he let his voice break so she could see how upset and serious he was. "You can get your stuff later. I just need you to leave. Besides, I'm sure _Finn_'s waiting for you at his studio in _Jersey."_

He sneered Finn and Jersey to show his obvious disdain for both. Without giving her another glance, he headed towards their – his – bedroom. Rachel wiped her eyes and sniffled a few times. Burdened with guilt and heartbreak, she picked her phone off the floor and left like he had begged her to. It was the least she could do.

* * *

When Quinn had opened the door to a tearful Rachel Berry, she knew something had to be wrong. She quickly ushered Quinn into her living room, glad that Puck wasn't there to make any unhelpful comments towards Rachel's appearance. She sat them both on the couch and waited for Rachel to explain.

It was a few minutes before Rachel spoke, "I really messed up, Quinn."

"How?"

And the whole story came flowing out of Rachel like bad word vomit. She recounted how Finn had showed up outside the stage door of her show and asked if she wanted to go grab a drink. She had told him no at first, explaining that things between her and Jesse were really tense right now, and that she needed to go home and make things right. He kept insisting though, throwing out that Jesse saw her everyday and that if he hadn't put out the effort to fix things, why should she? He continued with the fun that they always had together, and how he had missed her those years that they were states apart. She explained how the pout on his face had made her cave. Then, after getting drinks at a bar down the street, he had asked her if she wanted to go see his apartment because she had yet to visit it. Again, Rachel had tried to reject him. She mentioned again that she should go home and talk things out with Jesse. Finn had proceeded to pout again, saying that he wanted to show her that he was making something of himself. That he wasn't just going to be a Lima Loser forever. Once again Rachel found herself getting into a cab headed to New Jersey with Finn. She told Finn how she had pulled her phone out of her bag and seen all the calls she had missed from Jesse, but for some reason she didn't call him back. Rachel ended her story telling Quinn that she had fallen asleep on Finn's couch.

"Rachel," Quinn frowned. "What were you thinking?"

"I don't know," Rachel cried. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I love Jesse. I know I love Jesse. It's just that, whenever I get around Finn he has this way of turning the pity I feel for him into some perverse sense of attraction."

"What did Jesse do when you got home this morning?" Quinn asked softly.

"We fought," Rachel sighed.

"You've fought with each other before," Quinn tried to reason. "Maybe-"

"Not like this," Rachel interrupted solemnly. "He's never yelled at me before. Ever. And that's pretty much all this fight consisted of. The worse thing is, I couldn't fight back because everything he said was true. Well, everything except for the accusation of me cheating on him with Finn. He kicked me out, Quinn. Of course, he didn't use those words, but the idea was there. He said I could come and get my stuff later, but he just needed me to leave. That's why I came here."

Quinn nodded. "You've got the prince and the pauper syndrome."

"The what?" Rachel asked with confusion.

"The prince and the pauper syndrome," Quinn repeated. "It's like this, you have Jesse. He's the perfect boyfriend that any girl would kill for. He's rich, he's successful, he's famous, he'd do anything for you in a heartbeat-"

"I get it," Rachel frowned. Her guilt was only increasing as Quinn recited everything Rachel had ruined.

"The point is," Quinn continued, "that Jesse is the prince. He's everything that anyone could ever want. And then there's Finn – the pauper. He works his way into your life under innocent pretenses. He's not as affluent as the prince, he's not as successful, he's not famous, but he has the pity factor."

"The pity factor?"

"The pity factor," Quinn confirmed. "Think about any love triangle movie you've ever seen. There's always a pauper. Take _Pretty in Pink _for example, Duckie was Andie's pauper. He was her best friend with secret feelings for her that got the pity factor from the audience because he had always been there for her. Enter Blane, the prince, he has everything that Andie's never admitted that she wanted. He's cute, privileged, popular, the works. He messed up a few times down the road which gave Duckie the chance to swoop in and comfort, but in the end that's all Duckie got. It's what all the Duckie's of the world end up with because they never go beyond their pauper status."

"Quinn-"

"And every girl has a soft spot for the pauper, and said soft spot occasionally causes a rift between her and who she's supposed to be with. Did you know that the original script for _Pretty in Pink _had Andie ending up with Duckie?"

"Well, no."

"Which is just like how for years you thought you were going to end up with Finn. Then, someone came along and rewrote your ending, and gave you something so much more iconic. They gave you the opportunity to go from a sappy, feel-good, ends-up-with-the-supporting-man movie to an epic romance. Finn's not your happy ending, and you need to realize that before you settle for something so much less than what you deserve."

Rachel stood from the couch, and Quinn glanced at her questioningly.

"Sorry, Quinn," Rachel said with a reassured smile on her face. "I have a prince to catch."

Rachel ran out of Quinn's apartment building and out onto the streets of Manhattan. She let out a frustrated groan when she got soaked in rain the second she stepped out of the threshold, and she cursed when she couldn't find an available cab. Turning around on the sidewalk, Rachel wondered to herself how Quinn managed to live in the one New York apartment building without a subway entrance next to it. Shaking her head and frowning, Rachel turned to her last option. Running.

* * *

When she arrived at her - or what had been her - apartment building, Rachel had run into countless people, was soaked from head to toe, had running makeup, and what was pretty sure to be a sprained ankle. Regardless, she smiled at the doorman who addressed her as "Ms. Berry" with a confused smile. She made her way to the elevator pretending that nothing was strange about her appearance, and when the older couple from the floor below herself and Jesse got on the elevator with her, she returned their pleasant greetings flawlessly.

After what seemed like forever, Rachel found herself in front of the door she had entered carelessly multiple times. This time, though, she knew she would have to knock. So, she stood there, trying to gather the courage to do so and come up with what she was going to say. Finally, she put some of her thoughts in order and lightly knocked on the door.

It took him a few seconds to answer, and Rachel stood impatiently. When he did finally reach the door, though, he seemed to be assessing her appearance – he even looked worried for a fleeting moment – and then he frowned.

"Rachel, what are you doing here?"

Rachel lifted her gaze from the floor.

"Can I come in?" her tone was quieter than he had ever heard. He seemed to think it over before he sighed and stepped out of the threshold, wordlessly letting her into the apartment.

They both walked to the living room and stood facing each other awkwardly. Finally, Jesse broke the silence.

"You look like hell, and you have to be freezing."

"Thanks," Rachel sighed. "And, yes, I'm a little cold."

Once again, Jesse seemed to ponder something. He sighed and said, "Go and change. Then, I guess we can talk about why you're here."

Rachel nodded and headed back to the bedroom so she could get new clothes. She walked into their – or what was their – closet and pulled out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. She looked around at her clothes that were hung neatly next to Jesse's and held back tears. She didn't want any of this to change. She didn't want to move out. She didn't want her own closet.

She let herself go into the attached bathroom, brush out her hair, and put it up. And after seeing just how much her makeup had smeared, she took out a wash cloth and quickly wiped it off. Feeling a bit better about herself, Rachel returned to the living room where Jesse was seated on the couch with two mugs of coffee placed on the table in front of him. Rachel sat on the other side of the couch and stared at the mug placed in front of her.

"I thought you might want it to warm up," Jesse explained quietly.

"Thank you," Rachel offered him a little smile, but he didn't return it. She reached for the coffee and took a sip of it. Then, she turned to face him.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"I know," Jesse said simply.

"I don't have feelings for Finn," Rachel added, hoping that he would respond with more than just a sentence.

"I know you don't."

"I know it must have – Wait, you know?"

"Yeah," Jesse sighed. "Look, I know that any feelings you had for Finn are in the past. My problem isn't what you do or don't feel for Finn. It's what I know he feels for you, and how it doesn't seem to bother you that you hanging around him bothers me."

"I know. I'm really sorry. I was being selfish."

"You were lying to me. You ignored my calls. I just never thought that you would hide something like this from me. It just makes me wonder if maybe you do have some unresolved longing to be with Finn."

"I don't want Finn," Rachel said with confidence.

"What exactly do you want, Rachel? Because for the last week I haven't really been number one on your priority list either."

"I want you," Rachel stated. They made eye contact for a spit second before Jesse broke it by reaching for his mug and taking a sip from it.

When he faced her again he spoke, "I knew you did up until the last month. I'm not so sure anymore, Rachel. Finn managed to create the rift between us once, who's to say it won't happen again?"

"I am," Rachel answered. She didn't want to lose the look of breaking resolve in Jesse's eyes so she was quick to continue. "I don't want to see Finn anymore. The only reason I felt any need to be with him over the past month was because of the pity factor."

"The pity factor?"

"The pity factor," Rachel nodded. "For a long time, I thought Finn was my future. Then, you came along and changed everything I had planned for my life. I don't want the ending I tried to force myself into years ago. I want you. So, I need you to forgive me so we can have the ending we're meant to."

Rachel watched as Jesse looked to the ceiling for a moment to soak in everything she had just said.

He turned to her, finally, and Rachel was relieved when she saw the familiar smirk on his face.

"I guess I can do that."

Rachel was quick to grab behind his neck and pull his mouth to hers. They stumbled off the couch and clumsily made way to _their _bed.

* * *

**So I figure there's a lot of stories out there that make Jesse that one that screws up and has to beg for forgiveness. I figured I'd play around with some role reversal!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or Pretty in Pink**

**Thoughts?**


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